#baker thief

aro & ace books: fat/plus size characters

some of these are based off memory and I can't remember if it's something that's explored much in the book, or just offhand description/the cover! Feel free to correct or remind me of others

Baker Thief & Painted Flock - urban fantasy, aroallo genderfluid & demi-aroace woman MCs (various other aspec MCs)

Two Dark Moons - YA fantasy, aroallo girl MC (1/3)

Someone You Can Build A Nest In - fantasy/horror, ace woman LI (& MC)

Hallowed Be Her Flesh - horror/romance, sex-favorable ace woman MC

The Thread That Binds - urban fantasy, grey-ace agender MC, aroallo SC

The Chronicles of Nerezia - fantasy, aroace agender MC (1/4, most are aspec)

Her Own Happiness - contemporary, ace man MC (1/2)

Beneath The Citadel - YA fantasy, ace girl MC (1/5)

The Sound of Stars - YA sci-fi, demisexual girl MC

A Song of Salvation - YA sci-fi, 3 demi-coded MCs (2xM 1xF)

A House Between Sea and Sky - historical cozy fantasy, aroace woman MC

Love Letters for Joy - YA contemporary, ace girl MC (1/2)

City of Spires - high fantasy, aroace MC (various other aspec MCs)

Here Goes Nothing - YA contemporary, ace girl MC

Goddess of the Hunt - poetry collection, aroace

The Witch King - YA fantasy, ace girl SC

#aspec books / aspec database / tumblr masterpost

(Drop a 🏳️‍🌈 in my inbox and I’ll respond with a queer media recommendation!)

Baker Thief by Claudie Arseneault is an aromantic reinterpretation of the enemies-to-lovers trope, following a cop-and-robber duo in a fantasy setting with witches and magic blended with tech. The story is full of major queer characters, with a strong focus on the aspec characters.

Here's the official plot summary:

Adèle has only one goal: catch the purple-haired thief who broke into her home and stole her exocore, thus proving herself to her new police team. Little does she know, her thief is also the local baker. Claire owns the Croissant-toi, but while her days are filled with pastries and customers, her nights are dedicated to stealing exocores. These new red gems are heralded as the energy of the future, but she knows the truth: they are made of witches’ souls. When her twin—a powerful witch and prime exocore material—disappears, Claire redoubles in her efforts to investigate. She keeps running into Adèle, however, and whether or not she can save her sister might depend on their conflicted, unstable, but deepening relationship.

I was nervous about this one at first, because I'm incredibly critical of stories with queer cops. It's my biggest complaint about the Netflix series Arcane, and it's why I never bothered with B99 or that Pixar movie Onward. I'm familiar with the author's other work and queer advocacy, though, and we've casually interacted on social media. Claudie's awesome, so I was excited to give Baker Thief a shot even though I might have otherwise passed on it. What ultimately made the story work for me is that it explores police corruption and what happens to good people with good intentions who try to change the police force from within. Adèle tires to do the morally correct thing, and it makes other cops target her as an enemy.

I also really loved the worldbuilding in this one. I'm a sucker for magic tech, and fantasy settings where industrial development is happening alongside magic goings-on. I don't see it nearly as often as I want!

Asexual edition.

Row One: Stand-Alones:

Asexual Fairy Tales by Elizabeth Hopkinson: Exactly what it says on the tin, a collection of asexual fairy tale retellings. Hopkinson has written two more collections like this.

Space Cadets by Robin Banks: In a dystopian future, five cadets are the only survivors of a cruel space battle. They take their ship and run, and have to consequently figure out, what to do next.

Baker Thief by Claudie Arsenault: New in the city, a police officer chases after a thief who broke into her home and stole her expensive power source, only to stumble on a conspiracy.

Row Two: Series with two books:

The King's Peace/The King's Name (Sulien series) by Jo Walton: Arthurian retelling set in an alternate universe. The main character and narrator is the equivalent of our Sir Lancelot, the King's best and most trusted general. She narrates the story from their first meeting to after his death.

Dread Nation/Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland: Alternate history where the American Civil War ended in a zombie apocalypse, and people of color are being forced to fight the zombies. The asexual character, Katherine, is there from the beginning on, but only becomes a POV character in the second book.

Row Three: Series with more than two books:

The Dreamhealers series by M.C.A Hogarth: In a space fantasy world with many different species living together in harmony, it follows the lives of two psychology students (later doctors), who form a mental link and become platonic life partners.

The Margin Street Zeroes series by Robin Banks: Follows the lives of three (later four) very broke, very neurodivergent and very queer university students who are also harassed by gods and magic. They form a found family that actively defies societal expectations. The asexual storyline only starts in book 3, but one of the two asexual characters, Ben, is there all along. The other, AK, also only joins in book 3.

Title: Baker Thief

Series: Val-de-mer

Author: Claudie Arseneault

Genre: Fantasy

Audience: Adult

Format: Novel

Representation: Genderfluid POV character

Nonbinary supporting characters

Summary: Policewoman Adèle Duclos’s transfer to the city of Val-de-mer offers her a new start after retaliation for exposing corruption within her previous force left her consigned to the worst cases and conditions. But her work becomes personal when, before her first day on the job, she becomes a victim of the mysterious exocore thief she’s been assigned to catch. As she digs deeper into the case and crosses paths with Claire, the thief, yet again, she begins to suspect that there is something darker than mere theft involved and that stopping Claire might be the last thing Val-de-mer needs. 

By day, Claude is a bakery owner feeding pastries to the citizens of Val-de-mer – including a cute new police officer who makes a point to chat with him every morning. But by night, Claude takes to the shadows as Claire, liberating Val-de-mer’s newest energy source, the exocores, from their owners. Claire steals not for profit, but because her magic set off an unignorable sense of wrongness around the exocores. With the help of her twin sister, Claire learns the horrifying human cost behind the new technology just before her sister goes missing. Frantic to find her and growing desperate to put an end to exocore production before any more people can be hurt, Claire may have to turn to the very woman who’s been trying to stop her for help. 

so this question has been on the askbox sometime now... mostly because (despite being a bookworm), i stray away from books that discuss sex or romance, therefore i don't usually encounter deviants

but ! i decided to be a proper admin and i started reading "Baker Thief" by Claudie Arseneault, which features a cast of diverse queer characters in a magic vs technology setting !

while i haven't finished it yet, i encourage people to give it a read ! digital copies are cheap and easily accessible

now on the plot: it is an enemies-to-lovers (sort of), which shifts perspectives between Adèle (biromantic demisexual), a police officer trying to catch a thief, who is also the baker she has developed a crush for, Claire/Claude (aromantic genderfluid) !

if any part of this description catches your attention, definitely check it out ! you won't be disappointed